The Frightening Ratio Of CEO To Average Worker Salary

Brandon is a Pace University graduate and avid Philadelphia sports fan, but don't hate him because of it...please? He was a former intern at the Howard Stern Show as well as a reporter for the MTA program Transit Transit Newsmagazine. He likes to be in front of the camera or behind the mic, but he enjoys news writing just as much.

For those of us who paid attention in math class throughout high school and college, ratios are used a lot and can be kind of cool. They’re useful in tons of everyday situations. Here’s a real neat one for you all – 303 to 1.

No, this isn’t the number of your resumes submitted to the number someone actually looked at (although I imagine that ratio isn’t too far off). This huge ass ratio relates to the amount of pay top CEOs are receiving. Simply put, they are making 300 times more than you.

This may not be a surprise to some of you, but what’s especially interesting, according to Fortune.com, is that from 1965 to 2014, CEOs saw an inflation-adjusted pay increase of over 1,000%. Yeah, that’s a big number.

How about for the average worker during that same period? Subtract 989% and you have your answer. Yes, the average worker’s pay from 1965-2014 has only increased 11%. Numbers really do put things into perspective sometimes.

These numbers come from a general report that was conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, which released the data on Sunday. With the increasing wages for CEOs and basically stagnant wages for average American workers, where does the ceiling come in? Well, the ceiling just keeps rising for the CEOs. Many of these CEOs also have a variety of access to company stock, which is where additional money comes in, according to Fortune.

As the income gap grows larger and larger at many places, the results can be declining morale in the work environment. Pay gaps such as these can lead to disappointed and disgruntled workers, which can affect the bottom line of the company and the performance overall.

Fortune went on to say that shareholders and CEOs are taking notice of this gap and know that it can have an impact on the way their business is run. Overworked and underpaid is never a good combination.